Clik here to view.
Ted Gioia on Paul Desmond
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following is from the Third Edition of Ted Gioia’s The History of Jazz [2021] a must volume that any serious Jazz fan should...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tommy Flanagan - A Bebopper of Gentlemanly Distinction - [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“One of the piano masters of Detroit, he played on many major recordings in the late '50's but thereafter sought an accompanist's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"COMPADRES WITH B R U B E C K" - Jerome Klinkowitz, Listen Gerry Mulligan: An...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Although the billing of the group is ‘The Dave Brubeck Trio featuring Gerry Mulligan,’ Brubeck invariably refers to it as “the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bill Evans - The Ralph J. Gleason Interview
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Pianist Bill Evans [1929-1980], who went on to become a world- renown Jazz musician, gave very few lengthy interviews early in his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Victor Feldman and Frank Rosolino: The "Lost" Recordings [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.For about two years in the late 1950s, I had the pleasure of hanging out with pianist/vibist Victor Feldman and trombonist Frank Rosolino...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Frank Griffith Interview with Gordon Jack
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Gordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journaland a very generous...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jimmy Knepper [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.A contrafact is a musical work based on a prior work. The term comes from classical music and has only since the 1940s been applied to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Art of Jazz Guitar [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.There’s a reason why the name for the long part of a guitar is “the neck.”For there are times when one becomes so frustrated trying to play...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pat Martino - Calm Before the Storm - Veryl Oakland
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This piece on guitarist Pat Martino who passed away in November, 2021 at the age of 77 is from photographer/essayist Veryl...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gary McFarland: Voyage of Discovery
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Gary McFarland was unknown at twenty-eight when he turned up at a 1961 rehearsal [of Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band] with two pieces,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pat Martino - STRINGS!
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time with the music of the late guitarist Pat Martino who died on November 1, 2021.Pat and I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stan Kenton: The Early Years, 1941-1947 by Edward F. Gabel - Part 1
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“This is the story of the personal relationship between Stan Kenton and his friend Ed Gabel during the first years of the first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stan Kenton: The Early Years, 1941-1947 by Edward F. Gabel - Part 2
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Ed Gabel’s Stan Kenton: The Early Years, 1941-1947 is filled with a tone of wide-eyed innocence and naivete.From the vantage point...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jessica Williams Revisited - In Memoriam
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Jessica Williams Died on March 12, 2022. I am reposting this piece in her memory.I first “met” Jessica around 1980. This was back in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Digging Dave Brubeck and Time Out! - Alan Goldsher
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The reaction [to my music] has gone on ever since I was a kid: "What the hell is he doing?" And it's a common experience for me.”-...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chuck Israels on Bill Evans from Randy Smith's "Talking Jazz"
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.EXPOSING THE ISSUES:CHUCK ISRAELS INTERVIEW"He [Bill Evans] thought he was gonna be amiddle class junkie."- Chuck Israels“I met...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Yusef Lateef - Removing the Mystery by Veryl Oakland
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Lateef's drawn-out, distinctive vibrato notes quietly reverberated throughout the room, casting a haunting, trance-like spell. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sweet Thunder: Duke Ellington’s Music in Nine Themes by Jack Chambers
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."I remember probably better than anything the time we were tied up in Shanghai alongside a ship that had come out later, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Double Play: Harry Carney and Johnny Hodges Interviewed by Don DeMichael [1962]
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.By 1962, when the following article by Don DeMichael appeared in Downbeat (7 June 1962, 20-21, 44), saxophonists Harry Carney...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jessica Williams Plays for Lovers
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Jessica Williams Plays for LoversJessica Williams, piano“This is an album I've wanted to make for some time. This business is...
View Article